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Topic: Spare aircraft? (Read 2006 times)

What does everyone think about the idea of having a 'spare' aircraft in stock that basically fills in for other aircraft when on C Checks etc. Such an aircraft wouldnt have any routes assigned to it, but would be used as and when it is needed. Does anyone else do this, if so, do people think its worth it?

If you buy a midlife 737 or an old 737 200 for example to keep as a spare, what costs would be associated with it if it wasnt flying? Obviously if it was owned it would have no lease cost, but would there be a 'parking' charge for an extra plane?

And it's one of those things that sounds great when you've got 10 planes. Not so great when you've got 500 of them, of which as many of 50 of them might be going into C-Check in a given week.

In the end, there's a few issues with it:

1> Unless you're truly flying every single route you can, an "extra" plane is going to be better suited just out earning money, not sitting around filling a hole.2> If you've got so few planes that this is actually manageable then this "extra" plane is likely highly underutilized and point #1 applies3> If you've got a lot of planes this is just completely unmanageable4> Unless you're really screwing up somewhere else in this game, you're going to be making so much cash that whether a plane flies a given route or not is a completely moot point.

As sigma says, this is really only doable when your airline is brand new and you have a very small fleet, but even then, you're probably better off just giving all yoru planes constant routes and not worrying about switching them around for C-Checks.

Though, sometimes early in the game I'll do a similar thing when I'm fighting the incumbant carrier in town - I'll move a route to a newly arrived plane so it has no gaps, and after the C-check finishes that plane gets a new set of routes. That helps keep the staff costs down for the planes in maint and the RI building. Once the fleet gets to about 30 planes, this really isn't doable and by that point if you're making so little that a c-check hurts, you've got bigger issues than that...

This idea is good for real .. ex. many airlines always have a spare a/c for a delay or maintainance check each day to prevent a possible delay that might happen.

may be we can add it in the next version of game.

There's been a rather vivid thread in the features section talking about the concept of airplane pooling, and having enough aircraft in the pool to cover maint and the schedule as a method for accounting for this.

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jneil121

A c check does not harm any RI or CI and hardly umamangeable, plus why would we need a plane to fill in when I will just have to change around its schedules again a mere few hours after I changed it the first time? Hardly seems manageable.

A c check does not harm any RI or CI and hardly umamangeable, plus why would we need a plane to fill in when I will just have to change around its schedules again a mere few hours after I changed it the first time? Hardly seems manageable.

If its the only plane flying a route, it will impact RI (but very slightly).

You're right that this method isn't managable once you get a decent sized fleet, but to a small airline trying to take out the incumbant carrier in a particular airport, its almost essential to manage C-checks manually- more so by flying old planes with expensive C-Checks, getting a replacement plane in to take over the route and then ditch the old one back to the lessor. In ATB, if I didn't do that, I would have gone bankrupt rather than to go onto having nearly 500 planes in about 6 game years...

You're right that this method isn't managable once you get a decent sized fleet, but to a small airline trying to take out the incumbant carrier in a particular airport, its almost essential to manage C-checks manually- more so by flying old planes with expensive C-Checks, getting a replacement plane in to take over the route and then ditch the old one back to the lessor. In ATB, if I didn't do that, I would have gone bankrupt rather than to go onto having nearly 500 planes in about 6 game years...

Thanks... Funny how ORD has emptied out after a few bankruptcies. I'm sure I had nothing to do with it whatsoever

The biggest one that bankrupted there - I was thinking of going after him as well, but with basing limitations (without ability to set up a base at his HQ - top 20 - and 70 aircraft limit elsewhere), I decided to go elsewhere. But one thing is clear, the only way to dislodge an established airline is to start from scratch at his HQ.

I think the later stages of game would be more interesting if there were no limits on the bases and if big airlines could fight it out...

To qualify your statement about taking down a large airline, its only feasible if it isn't very well run. A lot of airlines spring up early in the game when conditions aren't as difficult that get clobbered as plane prices go up and fuel prices spike. Those are the ones to target for your expansion...